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When I was young, I worked a few summers with my father as a carpenter.
One of his lead hands was a Mennonite, and he had an interesting mix of old-
and new-World views. He had great difficulty believing in the Apollo moon
missions, and insisted that the Earth was flat. But he drove a car and
used power tools without difficulty.
We took an Associated Press book to work, with the beautiful picture of the
Earth rising over the moon taken during Apollo 8, at the time of their
famous Bible reading. He had seen it on television, as well.
He was still reluctant to believe, even in the face of such immediate
evidence. He finally accepted, but many of his order did not.
It was his change that impressed me, not the original views. Some people
have difficulty understanding that those bright things out there at night
are stars, as I read in AStronomy magazine.
John Kabel
London, Ontario
> There's a nice flat-Earth story told by my favourite traveller, Joshua Slocum.
>
> In South Africa in 1897, by which time his circumnavigation was largely
> completed, a group of three Boer geographers tried to convince him that the
> Earth was flat. Even his Mercator charts of his voyage (being flat also)
> failed to convince them. Later, he was introduced to President Kruger of
> Transvaal who, it turned out, shared those same views, and when Slocum
> explained his voyage, dismissed it as simply impossible.
>
> A remarkable example of minds closed to the facts by an awful combination
> of racial, intellectual, and religious bigotry, in my view.
>
> I would hope that few flat-Earthers now remain since publication of
> photographs of the Earth from space. But there exist many other matters, in
> which facts and arguments are dismissed by unreceptive intolerance.
>
> Of course, my own reasoned rejection of an argument is on a much higher
> plane than the bigotry and intolerance of others. I think.
>
> George.
>
> ================================================================
> contact George Huxtable by email at george---.u-net.com, by phone at
> 01865 820222 (from outside UK, +44 1865 820222), or by mail at 1 Sandy
> Lane, Southmoor, Abingdon, Oxon OX13 5HX, UK.
> ================================================================